Friday, September 29, 2006

Government Survey: Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures

The National Center for Health Statistics released the government'smost comprehensive survey of American sexual practices andreproductive health yesterday, delving for the first time into suchsensitive areas as the prevalence of oral sex among teenagers andsame-sex activity among adults.

Oral sex among teenagers has in recent years become a topic of rampantspeculation and little solid data, apart from a 1995 Urban Institutestudy of adolescent boys. The new statistics confirm that study'sfindings that oral sex is very much part of the teenage sexualrepertory. According to the survey, more than half of all teenagersaged 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex - including nearly a quarter ofthose who have never had intercourse.

Among the findings in the new study, "Sexual Behavior and SelectedHealth Measures," were the following:

=B6Men age 30 to 44 have had a median of six to eight sexual partners intheir lifetimes; women's median was about four.

=B6Among both men and women age 15 to 44, about two-thirds have had onlyone sexual partner in the last year. Ten percent of the men and 7percent of the women have had three or more partners in that time.

=B6About 4 percent of men and women described themselves as homosexualor bisexual, but in a finding that surprised the researchers, 14percent of the women aged 18 to 29 reported at least one homosexualexperience, more than twice the proportion for young men.

The report offers new information about homosexuality in the UnitedStates. Among adults ages 15 to 44, almost 3 percent of men and 4percent of women reported having a sexual experience with a member ofthe same sex within the past year, and over their lifetimes, 6 percentof men and 11 percent of women had such experiences. About 1 percentof men and 3 percent of women had had both male and female sexualpartners in the previous 12 months.

Nearly 6 percent of all men ages 15 to 44 reported having oral sexwith another man at some time in their lives, and nearly 4 percentreported having anal sex with another man.

The data comes from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, asurvey of 12,571 men and women ages 15 to 44. The survey contractorwas the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, whichtrained more than 200 women to collect the data by having the subjectanswer sensitive questions on a computer, without revealing theanswers to the interviewer.

Although the National Center for Health Statistics has periodicallyconducted that survey among women for 32 years, the 2002 version wasthe first to include both sexes, and to move beyond fertility andchild-bearing into broader questions of sexual behavior and sexualorientation.

The new findings on teenagers and oral sex have been of specialinterest to health experts.

"After years of provocative headlines and breathless stories basedmostly on anecdote, we finally have some solid data," said SarahBrown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy."The news is probably not as bad as adults might have been led tobelieve, but it is likely not as good as most parents might wish."

The proportion of teenagers who have given or received oral sex wasslightly higher than the proportion who have had intercourse, thesurvey found, with 55 percent of the boys and 54 percent of the girlshaving given or received oral sex, while 49 percent of the boys and 53percent of the girls have had intercourse.

"One thing that surprised me is that we expected, based on anecdotalevidence, that girls might be more likely to give oral sex and boysmore likely to receive it, but we didn't find that at all," said Dr.Jennifer Manlove, of Child Trends, which, like Ms. Brown's group,released an analysis of the data, "There's more gender equality thanwe expected."

The government data does not provide any indication of the age atwhich oral sex first occurred, how often it occurred, or how manypartners a teen had had. But the survey found that nearly allteenagers who have had sexual intercourse have also had oral sex: 88percent of the boys and 83 percent of the girls.

"A very significant proportion of teens has had experience with oralsex, even if they haven't had sexual intercourse and may think ofthemselves as virgins," Dr. Manlove said. "We're not sure whetherthese teens who have not had sexual intercourse are engaging in oralsex because they view it as a way to maintain their technicalvirginity or even because they regard it as an easy method of birthcontrol."

While many of the findings in the government report parallel those ofthe last large-scale study of American sexual behavior, a 1992 studyof 18- to 59-year-olds by the University of Chicago's National OpinionResearch Center, the lead author of the new study said it found a newand unexpected increase in lesbian activity among young women. It maynot be such a surprise among those of college age, who speak of LUG's- lesbians until graduation.

"There are signs of change among 15- to 29-year-old women, a group ofwomen too young to have been be included in the 1992 study," saidWilliam Mosher, the lead author.

When asked, "Have you ever had any sexual experience of any kind withany female?" 14 percent of the 18- to 29-year-old women said yes,compared with slightly under 10 percent of the 30- to 44-year-olds.That difference was surprising, Dr. Mosher said, since on questionsabout lifetime experience, older people usually report more thanyounger ones.

The study also asked about sexual attraction. Among men 18 to 44, 90percent said they thought of themselves as heterosexual, 2 percent ashomosexual, 2 percent as bisexual and 4 percent as "something else,"findings similar to those in 1992.

Among women, 86 percent said they were attracted to only men and 10percent "mostly to males." In the 1992 survey, only 3 percent saidthey were "mostly" attracted to males.